“Monty Python’s Spamalot” is now more than 20 years old, and its source material, the film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” is more than 50. In the Broadway in Chicago touring production shacking up at the CIBC Theatre through May 31, it doesn’t look a day over 19. Er, 29. Um, whatever number makes it seem still young, energetic and ridiculous. Actually, maybe it should be 6-7.
For those who don’t already know, the show takes the plot, such as it is, of “Holy Grail,” including lifting several of the 1975 movie’s bits wholesale. King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table go in search of the holy grail, encountering a series of picaresque adventures that amplify the skills of a sketch-comedy troupe.
To that framework, “Spamalot” adds a scene-stealing Lady of the Lake, chorus girls and many new songs, and it borrows the anthem “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from another Python movie, “Life of Brian.” Those who were that kid in junior high school — i.e. if you know what completes “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of ___” — will already know about half the material. (It’s “elderberries.”)
Whether that’s a feature or a bug will differ among audience members. Most of the repurposed material is still very funny, and the cast delivers it with aplomb, the actors delivering even verbatim lines with their own inflection and sense of humor. Chris Collins-Pisano, playing many of the roles played by John Cleese in “Holy Grail,” did particularly well in making lines his own as the French taunter and the enchanter Tim.
The material that’s unique to “Spamalot” is a mixed bag. The Lady of the Lake character, played as an attention-stealing, applause-milking stage creature by Amanda Robles (the lyrics of her “Diva’s Lament” complain about her lack of second-act stage time), is a fabulous addition to the story, in all senses of “fabulous.” The new plot point, where King Arthur and his knights must put on a Broadway show, and the instructive song “You Won’t Succeed on Broadway” dovetail nicely with the winky ethos of the original.
Some of it isn’t as strong. The tune “I’m All Alone,” sung by King Arthur (Major Attaway) when he is in fact not alone but with his squire/ersatz horse Patsy, has only one joke that doesn’t merit the prolongation it gets. And there is little that’s not from “Holy Grail” that presents the hyperverbal, humor-dense style that is the Python signature.
But maybe that’s deliberate. After all, “Spamalot” is musical theater, and “Holy Grail” is a movie. Many differences and additions underscore the fact that it’s a live show. “The Song That Goes Like This” sends up Andrew Lloyd Webber-type building ballads with its self-referential lyrics and three key changes. And “Spamalot”-only jokes have a musical-theater cadence to them, such as when to introduce “Find Your Grail,” King Arthur says having the goal to strive for is what’s important, and that the grail itself is a symbol, a pit musician plays a cymbal. Straight out of vaudeville.
And the live production entails some weaknesses, as well. Rapid lyrics and lines that veer from erudition to profanity are better served by screen-size sound presentation, where articulation is less in danger of being swallowed by the space. The sound mixing at press night did this issue no favors; many times the actors’ voices were covered by the orchestra.
The show makes no bones about being there to entertain the audience. So much mugging, so much randomness, the toilet humor, the kicklines — the actors appear to be having a great time, and they invite the audience to join in. Literally so, in the sing-along reprise of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” around the final applause.
Near the end of the show, the character of Sir Robin (Sean Bell) says he has found his grail in the form of musical theater, and it’s not hard to really believe him.